ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (AMS:ABN)
Netherlands · Delayed Price · Currency is EUR 30.47
+0.25 (0.83%)
May 7, 2026, 11:45 AM CET
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AGM 2021
Apr 21, 2021
Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders and receipt holders, I hereby declare today's meeting open. A very warm welcome to everyone at this fully online Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. On behalf of the Supervisory Board, we have the whole board with us, Arjen Dorland, Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board and Chair of the Remuneration Committee, Charlene Timstra, Chair of the Audit Committee, Jurgen Stegmann, Chair of the Risk and Capital Committee, Leticia Griffith, Michiel Lap, Anna Storokos, Marie Quintana Mart and myself, Tom DeSvan, Chair of the Supervisory Board. The whole Executive Board is also with us today. Robert Zwack, CEO Tanja Kuppen, Chief Risk Officer Christian Bornfeldt, Chief of Innovation and Technology Officer and Annemieke Roost, Interim Chief Financial Officer.
Robert Svec, myself and the Secretary of the company are physically present at the location. Heineke Dorfman will be the secretary for today's meeting. Lars Kramer, Brian Pennomenation as the new CFO of ABN AMRO is with us today online and will be introducing himself later. And for our auditor, we have Wouter Smit. We have Wouter Smit also present online.
For the employee council, we have Alena Bosman with us also via video link. The notary Klumpkens of Zadbroek Notarisen is with us today in order to ensure that the voting takes place correctly. And before we embark, ladies and gentlemen, on the agenda for today's meeting, I would just like to take a moment to talk about events of last Monday. On Monday, the public prosecutor and ABN AMRO announced that the bank had accepted a settlement offer from the Dutch prosecution service in connection with shortcomings in our role as gatekeeper in money laundering matters. And as part of that settlement, ABN AMRO has paid €480,000,000 The public prosecutor identified a number of shortcomings in the period of 2014 to 2020 and some of them are grave ones.
This means that the bank's customers in some cases were able to abuse ABN AMRO bank accounts. That is a very grave matter. ABN AMRO did not fulfill its task as gatekeeper to a high enough standard that is unacceptable. This is distressing because society has expectations from the bank and expects us to play a role as gatekeeper and we have not been able to satisfy those expectations. We realize that this has damaged confidence in ABN AMRO and this touches us very deeply.
This is not what ABN AMRO is about. We want to be a bank which makes a positive contribution to society now and also in the future. On many occasions in the past, the bank has identified shortcomings in our fulfillment of the gatekeepers role and programs have been launched in various parts of the bank in order to improve the situation. I have no doubt that ABN AMRO is currently doing everything possible to achieve what everyone expects from us. That is to say, every day embarking in the battle for a safer society and a financial system which can live up to the highest standards.
Well, I could imagine there will be questions about this settlement with the Public Prosecutor Service And you'll have the opportunity for questions under Agenda Item 2 gs. Now I'd like to ask you to bear with me for a number of practical announcements. In order to minimize health risks, ABN AMRO has decided to have a fully online Annual General Meeting of Shareholders today in accordance with emergency legislation currently in force. This means that there are no visitors, shareholders or receipt holders present physically today. Another measure is that you can cast your votes in writing or electronically.
The meeting will take place in Dutch and as normal is being sent out live as a webcast in both Dutch and English on the ABN AMRO website. The whole meeting is being sound recorded for managing purposes. The minutes of the meeting will be available on the ABN AMRO website no later than the 20th July 2021 and will be open for comments for a 3 month period. I conclude that the shareholders and receipt holders were invited to the meeting in accordance with the law and the articles of association that the meeting can therefore take legally valid decisions and that share and receipt holders have not themselves presented any topics for today's agenda. I'll now tell you something about how today's meeting will be taking place.
You'll receive the agenda in the notice convening the meeting. A number of agenda items are broken down into several sections. For example, agenda item 2. What we will do is go through all the items and presentations for each agenda item in succession. And at the end of the presentations, we will answer any questions regarding all those presentations together.
Under Agenda Item 2, this means we will deal with questions after the presentation by E and Y. Agenda Item 2E is an advisory voting item, which means that We'll also give you opportunities to ask questions on agenda item 2E in as much as they deal with the remuneration report for 2020. You will have therefore, have a clear, good overview enable the meeting to run coherently. All shareholders and receipt holders who registered on time for today's meeting are invited to ask questions and make comments. Prior to today's meeting, we received a lot of questions sent in.
And it goes without saying that we will be happy to respond to them in the course of today's meeting. At the same time, we have to keep an eye on the clock to make sure everyone can speak if they wish. We would invite you first of all to restrict yourself to 3 questions per person per agenda item. If you want to ask a question using the chat in today's meeting. Please ask your question as swiftly as possible.
And we will attach each incoming question to the corresponding agenda item as much as possible. More general questions will be dealt with at the end of the meeting. Where the practicalities of the meeting require it. We will bundle questions on by topic and some will also be answered bilaterally after the meeting concludes. When answering questions on each agenda item, we will first deal with the questions sent in advance.
After that, we will go through the questions asked on the chat in the course of the meeting. Finally, receipt holders who asked in advance of the meeting are able to speak live at today's meeting and they can ask follow-up questions using the telephone connection. Prior to this meeting, these participants were sent instructions for doing this. Our request to these people is as follows. And certainly no later than the relevant agenda item has begun.
Participants can cast their vote at any time during the meeting. As you see, voting is already open and you will be able to continue voting until the end of agenda item 8, which is the last agenda item requiring voting. Voting results will therefore only be shown at the very end of the meeting. As you've seen on our press report and website, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board have decided that the agenda item on granting discharge to members of both boards should be scrapped from the agenda. You therefore cannot vote on those agenda items.
Now this is a virtual online meeting and that's one reason why most shareholders and certificate holders have already sent in their voting instructions. Now the important new information regarding the public prosecution service that I mentioned earlier was obviously came through after they had already cast their votes. That is why we decided that this agenda item should not be on the agenda today. I'll come on to that at a later stage. This brings us to the end of agenda item 1.
We now have the next item on the agenda 2a, the annual report of the Executive Board. And here I'll give the floor to Robert Spark. Please go ahead, Robert. Yes, thank you, Chairman. Now on behalf of the Executive Committee, I'll be running you through our activities and results in the past year.
Well, it was a lively year dominated by COVID, but it was also a year in which we make important choices regarding the future. Firstly, I'd like to come back to Monday's announcement. ABN AMRO has accepted a settlement offer from the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, €480,000,000 has been paid because of shortcomings in our performance of our duties as gatekeeper and in preventing money laundering. We did not do it well enough. And our customers and the general public expect better from us.
We take full responsibility for this very distressing situation. There's more than 19,000 of us and this is not what we wish to achieve every day. We want to be a bank which makes a positive contribution to society now and in the future. As gatekeeping activities have been centralized, we have carried out long term structural changes with guidance from the public prosecutors and the Dutch National Bank. And I have no doubt that we're currently doing everything we can to fulfill everyone's expectations of us.
Every day we renew the struggle for a more secure society and a financial system which can meet the highest requirements. Now coming back to 2020. Last year was a challenge. It was but it was also a very exciting time at which to start work as CEO. When I joined This position in the bank already had a strong capital position, strong liquidity and strong market position.
And with all the events of the past year, I work together with the Aceco and Ace Berman to set 4 clear priorities. 1 is navigating the bank through COVID-nineteen, another is a strategy review, Another is our license to operate and find new banks culture. Now I'd like to start off by saying that I am proud. I am proud of our good bank and above all of how the staff have got us through the crisis. 95% of the staff have been working from home since last March and most customer relations take place on video link.
Now this is possible because of all our staff's great commitment to energy. Last year, there's about 90,000 customers who enjoyed our support including payment delays and so on to help them cope with difficulties and we have set up a number of bridging loans for companies. I'll tell you more about our strategy with you in due course. But first, I'd like to talk about our license to operate and our culture which are priorities. We want customer needs to be at the heart of the matter.
We want to think and act from considering the joint interests. Those are the choices we make. And these are the things we need to do in order for our bank to shoulder its responsibilities and create long term value for all our stakeholders. Now the strategy review including the CIB review was one of our priorities. More than ever before.
Last year showed that our purpose banking better for generations to come is inspiring our staff. We've got good presence in all banking sectors. This is a unique range of products. We've had conversations with a great many stakeholders this has strengthened the bank's position. But I also got a clear message.
The strategy needs to be tightened up further. Our position wasn't always as clear as it might have been either. The strategy review's position was to start with building on the strong foundations and choices already made back in 2018 in order to bring the bank further into the future in a rapidly changing world. Well, we made clear choices. We want to be a personal bank in the digital age, serving our customers in markets where we have scale and presence.
And we're working also in terms of sustainability, making the bank simpler and more efficient. All of this rooted in a culture of shouldering our own responsibilities. These clear choices gave us a firm basis on which to grow in a number of segments to cut costs and enhance profitability and of course, to get a return on capital for our shareholders whenever possible. Let me run through some of those changes. Well, in order to service customers in segments where we have presence and scale, deals with a matter of focusing ourselves on Europe and the Netherlands Northwest Europe and the Netherlands.
We said that we would be withdrawing from all corporate banking activities outside Europe apart from clearing. In the Netherlands, we want to build on our existing strong presence for SMEs by, for example, by having money union present. In addition, we're investing in the Met Office services in order to speed services up. And we have leadership positions in all client segments, which means we can have a lifecycle proposal for entrepreneurs and businesses in the Netherlands and in North Western Europe. So what do we mean by a personal bank in a digital age?
Well, in the digital age, a great deal of things are possible only digitally. Customers expect simple and perfect digital solutions to their problems in a single channel. This means that We can play to the bank's existing strengths. We have our personal relationship of trust with our customers. We want to be there for our customers when they need us with expert personal advice for them.
This is essential in order to keep our bank relevant. Our second choice is sustainability. In the last year, we've seen the sustainability is of increasing commercial importance to the bank. For all our customers in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe, we are leading in circular growth and enhanced sustainability activities and social impact. We are making sure that sustainability is rooted in all our segments.
And as a bank, we are taking a leadership role in the sustainability movement. The 3rd choice is making the bank simpler and more efficient. We will be serving our customers in digital first as a principal and we will be a future proof bank by process computerizing our processes further. We'll also continue to centralize our activities and reduce red tape. This means we'll have more time available for focusing on our customers.
In addition, we'll also be in a position in the coming 4 years to keep costs down to the tune of €4,700,000,000 This strategy should leave us to an 8% result in equity in 20 24. But as long as interest rates remain so low, our income flows will remain threatened. Before I tell you a bit more about the financial side of things, I'd like to run quickly through the Dutch economy, our main market. The last year of course has been the COVID crisis. And here once again the Netherlands was able to show its strong economy.
We've got broad strong support for business from the government and that meant that we suffered much fewer blows than some other European countries. That does not alter the fact that COVID is having a very hard impact in some sectors. Regarding 2020, we had a small loss €45,000,000 We therefore did not achieve our targets for 2020, particularly because of increased and credits. Our rent income is still low because interest rates remain so low, but also because we are building down our non core activities. Costs remained under control last year and we met our target for cost cutting in 2020, €5,100,000,000 Across the whole of 2020, our credit provisions were present throughout because of 3 major client losses and the corona crisis etcetera.
Now these are a problem. And in recent years, we have taken in the last year, we've taken the necessary action to strengthen our position. I'm pleased to say that we remain a very capital strong bank. We can cope with a blow or 2. Regarding dividend policy, 50% of profit to be paid out means that this year, sadly, we will not be able to pay a dividend because we made a loss.
And as I said, the final dividend for 2019 last year was also not paid out, accordance to our guidelines. This is €639,000,000 is still set aside. Now because of our strong capital position, we have a good starting position to make the payment in due course when circumstances permit. Now Cutting down on CIB non core, this also has an impact on our risk profile. You can see that clearly in this slide now on the screen.
Apart from non core, trading profitability in 2020 was 5.4%. I'm delighted to see the progress in dismantling our portfolio. Last week, we sold some of Trade and Commodity Finance. At the end of this year, were expecting slightly like 60% of our portfolio to have been dismantled. Regarding our non financial targets, Well, again this year, we've got good progress to report.
Diversity is a very important topic as I see it, getting more women into senior management where we've got 30% now. Sustainability again has been rewarded with a good score on the Downstream Accessibility Index. I'm pleased to see that our employee engagement rate is now up from 80% to 84%. Customer satisfaction for Private Banking and CIB both went up last year but slightly down slightly for retail and commercial banking. We are going to be working on trying to improve that score in the coming years.
Finally then, 2020 was a dynamic year dominated by COVID, but it was also a year in which we made some important choices which would affect the future of the bank. We are working flat out to be a personal bank in a digital age. We've got a clear strategy and set out clear targets to achieve that. In accepting the public prosecution services settlement offer, we can draw a line under a painful and disappointing chapter for ABN AMRO. In detecting financial crime, according to the Dutch National Bank and the Public Prosecution Service, we have made some real steps in the right direction, which means that by the end of 20 22, we hope that all our shortcomings will have been fully addressed.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all our staff. The past year has been a difficult one for everyone. Sometimes difficult circumstances, teleworking from home, we've all put our shoulders to the wheel in order to assist our customers as well as possible. I very much appreciate this and it makes me full of confidence for the next future. Thank you very much.
Well, thank you very much, Robert.
Thank you
for that introduction to the Executive Board report. We'll now move on to Agenda Item 2B, of the Supervisory Board. Now you can find a full version of that in the annual report, And I'd just like to run through that briefly. An important topic in 2020 for the supervisory board and Robert mentioned that a moment ago was of course COVID-nineteen. In particular, its consequences for customers and staff in the bank and for the bank itself.
When the COVID-nineteen crisis began, The Supervisory Board decided to continue meeting to discuss this topic every week until further notice. And these Meetings were also attended by the executive board. So we had the CEO, the CRO, the CFO and the CITO. And they would give weekly updates on the impact COVID-nineteen was having on all the parts of the bank. In addition, Every meeting was attended by a CEO of 1 of the business lines in order to give the Supervisory Board a business update on the subject.
In 2020, we saw the findings of the review of corporate and institutional banking and we approved them. In addition, ABN AMRO published the findings of its strategy review and the board set out its vision for the future including financial targets. In addition, in 2020, There were a number of other topics on the supervisory board's agenda. And some examples would be, of course, the public prosecution service investigation, succession planning for the Executive Board, particularly including the planned nomination of Lars Kramer as CFO, the renomination of Tanja Kuppen as Chief Risk Officer and of Christian Bornfeld as Chief Innovation and Technology Officer. In addition, nominating a new member of the Supervisory Board, Marieke Talamat and the annual evaluations.
Now there are 4 committees in the supervisory board that is say the audit committee, the risk and capital committee, the selection and nomination committee and the remuneration committee. And they also all discussed a wide range of topics including preparing meetings and decision making for these supervisory board. The Audit Committee, for example, was involved with the financial results. Risk reports covering the whole bank and funding and capital plans were important topics for the Risk and Capital Committee. In addition, the Risk and Capital Committee was regularly kept updated by the Detecting Financial Crime Department.
The selection and nomination committee was working hard on the succession processes and developing talent and leadership. An important topic, which the remuneration committee discussed, was the impact of the COVID-nineteen crisis on our staff and the consequences for allocating the variable part of remuneration in 2020. We had active contacts with a number of stakeholders throughout the year including the Dutch National Bank, the European Central Bank, the Financial Markets Authority, STACK ABN AMRO and last but not least, NLFI. The Supervisory Board's objective remains to ensure that the bank is in a sound position to create value in the long term for its shareholders and for society as a whole with a strong focus on customer interests and soundly weighing up the interests of all our stakeholders.
Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to address you. Last Monday, on the Today, the results of the investigation by the Public Prosecution Service were disclosed. My coworkers and I had a very moving day, a day of disappointment, frustration, shame, but also relief. We waited a long time for the outcome of the investigation.
It hung over our heads like a sword of Damocles. Although in recent years, the ABN AMRO took a great many measures to prevent money laundering. Unfortunately, they have not been sufficient. That is not good.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:]
It will take a great amount of effort to restore our credibility and trust in part because the bank received negative disclosures and announcements in the news. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED
COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] For example, partly that we're no longer a
company publicly listed on the stock exchange or the ruling by Kiethit about consumer credit and that is also on our minds. But I have more than negative news to tell you about. There is there are a lot of good things to tell you about ABN AMRO, Things that my co workers and I are very proud of and energizes because we need energy to implement our strategy being a personal bank in the digital age. We're proud of how we managed to keep the bank going during the corona crisis for our customers. Most of us worked from home, but because the bank has Such a pivotal social role, 1,000 co workers did come to the office.
They had to come to the office and everything went off without a hitch. The corona crisis demonstrated that co workers are perfectly capable of working at home, whereas prior to the crisis, The emphasis was on physically working with each other at the office and now we have focused mainly on working from home. Following the crisis, We'll transition to a hybrid arrangement combining working from home with working at the office. Work at the ABN AMRO will never go back to what it was before the crisis. Much needs to be arranged to achieve this.
Important steps include adjusting our collective labor arrangement for the new method of working and Also adjust our buildings to a different way of meeting each other and we'll also have to modify our conduct. Let's keep that in mind. We're learning. We need to improve our digital skills and reach agreements about Optimal hybrid work, optimal for the bank and for the employees because although Much of our work can clearly be done perfectly well from home. It's not the ideal situation for every employee.
One size fits nobody matters here. Every job and every employee requires a custom based approach. So employee participation has worked hard in recent years to ensure that within the bank, employees are dealt with more sustainably. We're transitioning from classical restructuring to sustainable change from a shocking change with forced redundancies to transitioning to the desired situation that gives Employees the opportunity to train for new positions that benefits the bank and the employees. Employee participation is delighted at this trend.
And this helps us learn together in the best possible way. Nonetheless, Undeniably, our company will continue shrinking because of the ongoing Digitalization, wouldn't it be nice if the employees could retrain for positions outside the bank, for example, in education, Health Care or construction. Finally, I'd like to mention another positive development that is excellent for employees and that's that we are moving from a fragmented customer service to an all of us For the customer approach, employees no longer serve the customer based on a specialization, but bring this about altogether. And it may sound obvious, but it gives the concept of focusing on the customer interest in new meaning. We don't do risk management to obstruct commercial coworkers in the work.
We do this to protect the interests of our customers. Overall, Plenty of things and reasons for pride that are not always given adequate disclosure, nice things That fill us with energy and give us that desire to go the extreme mile. Thank you for your fine words, Arlene. On to agenda item 2 d, which is corporate governance. In the Leadership and Governance section in the annual report, you'll have read an extensive explanation of the ABN AMRO corporate governance structure.
On 22 April 2020, the supervisory board appointed Robert Zwack as the new CEO at ABN AMRO.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:]
The terms of the executive committee who are not members of the executive board were extended by 2 or 4 years In March 2020, the terms of Frans van der Horst, CEO Retail Banking and Pieter van Mirlo, CEO Private Banking, were extended by 2 years. The terms of Daphne de Klaus, CEO Commercial Banking and Director von Nauhaus, CEO Corporate and Institutional Banking were extended by 4 years. The bank has opted for distributed terms to ensure that executive committee members do not all need to be reappointed at the same time. Gerard Penning was appointed new Chief Human Resources Officer and member of the Executive Committee from 1 August 2020. On 17 November 2020, ABN AMRO announced that Clifford Abrams, CFO at ABN AMRO and Deputy Chair of the Executive Board and the Executive Committee would be leaving the bank on 28 February 2021 for a position closer to home in the United Kingdom.
The supervisory board then started a search for a new CFO, and We're delighted that Lars Kramer has been nominated and he will introduce himself to you later on in this meeting. His appointment is subject to approval by the European Central Bank. Until then, Annemiek Roost, Head of Controlling at ABN AMRO will serve as Interim CFO. Finally, Please note that ABN AMRO in the annual report from 2020 accounts for compliance with the corporate Governance Code in 2020. ABN AMRO meets all corporate governance code provisions except for those described in the chapter Corporate Governance Codes and Regulations in the 2020 Annual Report.
In addition, on our website, you will find a detailed description of how the bank applies the corporate governance code. Now on to agenda item 2E, the remuneration report for 2020. Please see the remuneration report as it appears in the 2020 annual report and added as a separate meeting document. And I'm pleased to give the floor to Arjan Dor Lampt, Chairman of the Remuneration Committee on the Supervisory Board for a brief description. Arjen, you have the floor.
Thank you. During the previous Annual General Meeting, last year, ABN ANRO presented the remuneration report for 2019 for an advisory vote. Over 99% of the votes cast supported a positive advice. ABN AMRO was pleased to note this and elaborated on this in structuring the remuneration report for 2020. One important topic in 2020 was the impact of the COVID-nineteen crisis on employees in general.
For example, there was a question whether the COVID-nineteen Crisis would affect allocating variable remuneration given the COVID-nineteen crisis, The financial results and the social role of the bank, it has been decided that all performance related variable remuneration for employees in the Netherlands will not be allocated for 2020 and those abroad will be curtailed. Other topics in 2020 included the Bankwide Global Reward Policy Retention packages related to divestitures with a view to the adjusted Strategy of Corporate and Institutional Banking. ABN AMRO has based the principles of its remuneration policy on its purpose, Banking for better for generations to come in the 3 strategic pillars, customer experience, sustainability and a bank that's fit for the future. As described by Robert Swach, BN AMRO has a moderate remuneration policy that meets all rules for public listed and financial institutions. These include restrictions concerning variable remuneration for some employees and in senior management, for example, there's a prohibition of bonuses.
And these are also established in ABN AMRO's global reward policy and in the remuneration policy of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board at The Annual General Meeting in 2020, an important opportunity was provided to all shareholders and depository receipt holders to share their opinion about the remuneration policy for the Executive Board and Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board is responsible for allocating remuneration of the Executive Board within the Limits of remuneration policy as long as the Dutch state is a shareholder of ABN AMRO, no variable remuneration can be granted to members of the executive board and There's also a prohibition on individual adjustments of annual base salary. In 2020, there were no deviations from the remuneration policy. The CLAs of ABN AMRO apply until 1 January 2022. That's why negotiations for the new CLAs from 1 January 2022 will start in the course of this year.
The current term of the banking CLA ended on 1 January At this year, on 9 March 2021, a new banking CLA was agreed and applies from 1 January 2021 through 31 December of this The agreed structural wage increase is 1.4% from 1 July 2021. The ratio between the average Annual employee remuneration and the annual remuneration of the CEO was 10.2 in 2020. The ratio equals The remuneration of the CEO, including pension charges, divided by the average employee salary, including pension charges in 2020 and was regarded as a fair reflection of the current position within ABN AMRO. The fixed salary for the 5 positions in the executive committee who are not Members of the Executive Board is based on the salary of the Executive Board. Taking into account the different responsibilities of these executive committee members, Remuneration for the members of the supervisory board is determined by the general meeting.
ABN AMRO does not grant variable remuneration or shares Or options to members of the supervisory board. Finally, the auditor has checked whether the remuneration report Contains the legally required information, which it does. Over to you. Thank you, Arden. Ladies and gentlemen, As I indicated at the start of the meeting, we will now move on to answering questions relating to the remuneration report for 2020.
Other questions concerning the annual report, corporate governance and financial statements will be answered after the following agenda item. All questions will be supported by a moderator. We kindly request participants to curtail the number of questions for each agenda item to a maximum of 3. We did not receive any questions about the remuneration report in advance. Now I'm pleased to give the floor to the moderator for any questions received via the live chat.
No questions were received via the live chat about this item. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first agenda item for voting. And as expected in these circumstances, the vote will be conducted electronically. If you vote in favor of this agenda item, you are in favor of a positive advice.
If you vote against this item, you are voting for a negative advice concerning the 2020 remuneration report. And The result will be the advisory nonbinding vote. And I need to tell you the numbers of Shareholders present, I'll receive this now, issued share capital of ABN AMRO comprises JPY 940,000,000 and one share. At this meeting, we have present or represented 1701 shareholders and Depositary receipt holders present or represented, whether online or otherwise who represent 762,576,662
Both,
which equals 81.11 percent of the issued share capital.
For Off Grandpa,
prior to the meeting, shareholders and depository receipt holders had the opportunity to exercise the right to vote online, that's e voting. And these votes will be included with the electronic votes cast during this meeting. As I mentioned at the start, participants may cast their vote throughout the meeting, And the result will be announced at the end of this meeting. This takes us To the end of 2E, we will now move on to 2F, which is the presentation by the external auditor, Ian Y, about the audit duties performed during the 2020 financial statements process. And I'll hand you over to Wouter Schmidt from E and Y for this.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the opportunity to present our involvement as I'm Wouter Schmidt. And since 2016, I've been the external auditor at ABN AMRO on behalf of Enri since 2016. In this presentation, I will address the following segments of auditing the bank in Over 2020, the scope and the timing and the audit of the bank and the main risks we identified, The impact of COVID-nineteen, the materiality that we applied, communication and interaction with the bank, Some considerations relating to the Wirecard file dealing with fraud and non compliance and finally, [SPEAKER
UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] The outcomes of our audit.
On this slide, you'll see the scope of our audit. This is what we audit. Perhaps
on the
back one slide, says the speaker, the corporate consolidated financial statements for 2020 of ABN AMRO. We check whether the annual report meets all legal requirements and assess the half year figures for the half year report and we perform a review of the quarterly figures for Q1 and Q3 for the ECB. We examined the integrated report and issue a separate statement about that. Finally, we audit the report from the regulator, the NABLONS Centraola Bank and the ECB via the COREP. And when do we do this?
This is the time line throughout the year. We are very busy working for ABN AMRO, and we signed the auditors' opinion on March. And you can see the Prudential audit is still pending. We'll be performing that in May. Now our approach is consistent with last year, understand the business and the environment based on global sector knowledge within the and we take a top down look at our audit approach, also risk based in accordance with Dutch and international standards.
Next, our risk assessment and scope assessment results in an audit plan, which we discuss with both the executive board and the supervisory board. In the audit plan, we describe where we want to rely on internal control measures by the bank and The substantive complete where we aim to do a substantive complete audit ourselves. And we Include certain countries in our scope because we're not only the auditor of ABN AMRO in the Netherlands, we're the auditor of ABN AMRO in all other countries based on our risk assessment and the relative extent of the operations and the scope, we determine the depth of our audit. The results of local audits is assessed and discussed with our teams on-site and with ABN AMRO. Our team and the specialists Has sector knowledge and is independent and meets all relevant training requirements.
Our experts are deployed to audit the valuation of financial instruments, IT environment, hedge accounting model of the bank as well as fraud and corruption risks. Now what's changed with respect to last year COVID-nineteen and a stronger focus on other aspects of compliance or noncompliance as well as more specialist Disclosures than in the past in part because of the implementation of IFRS 9. Now the COVID-nineteen impact, I can see we're moving on. Now one slide back please says the speaker. What are our focus areas?
You'll see them at the right. I'll tell you more about COVID-nineteen in a moment. The estimation uncertainty figures prominently In several items, for example, impairment allowances, which because of IFRS 19 is subject to even more models. We audit substantiation and documentation by deploying modeling specialists and we consider the adequacy of the financial statements extensively. In addition, There are the model overlays, which are additional provisions beyond the model outcomes because the models cannot accurately calculate the complete impact in these exceptional circumstances.
Another estimation, uncertainty, concern Other provisions for claims and compliance related topics because a provision needs to be taken. And If as a consequence of an event in the past, the chance is greater than 50%, this will result in a Payment and a reliable estimate is possible of the impact. A subsequent focus area is the investigation of the public Prosecutor, ABN AMRO, as you know, has been the subject of an investigation by the Public Prosecution Service since 2019. And upon completing the 2020 financial statements in early March 2020, the timing of the completion of this investigation and the outcome We're so uncertain that a reliable estimate of the impact was not possible at the time. And that's why In the 2020 financial statements of the bank, no provision was taken.
As we analyzed the relevant documentation, And we received legal letters from the bank's external legal counsel that represents the bank in this case. And we spoke directly with that same lawyer and checked that the financial statements were complete and accurate and discussed them with the Exco and the Advisory Board until the date we signed off on our statement on 9 March 2021. The final focus area you see on this slide Concerning reliability and continuity of the IT environment and we have access to cyber risk and change management procedures for this. In our auditors' opinion, the detailed one, you can read our about our audit approach for each Individual item here as well as our key observations. Now onto the COVID-nineteen slide, please, Seth, the speaker.
Now the restrictions resulting from COVID-nineteen led us to conduct a lot of our audit by remote. And several years ago, this might have been a problem. But thanks to modern technology, this year, we were able to obtain adequate audit information by remote means. And This concerned internal audit measures, the impact on credit risk by issued loans, IT security and the explanatory notes in the financial statements. We summarized our duties and conclusion in our auditor's opinion.
The most important aspects of the COVID-nineteen Impact concern lending losses based on historical data assumptions and expectations for the future, and they are inherently subjective. We assessed the methodology of the bank and reviewed the expectations based on our own expectations and external benchmarks and considered assessment based on asset impairment analysis and summarized this in our auditors' opinion. Next slide, please. Fraud and noncompliance were an important part of our activities. Based on our standards, we assess whether there is any noncompliance concerning law or regulation that could have a material impact.
And to this end, we assess the systemic Integrity risk analysis, known as CIRA. We examine the structure and existence of internal audit measure, the risk of material Error and the risk of external fraud. To this end, we assign specialists. These are forensic auditors who check all risks and audit information provided to us by the bank. And we read these letters together with them.
And we assess whether the fraud and risk factors [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED
COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] By assessing the overall
audit system of the bank, as depicted on this slide, has a total of detective and pre active and reactive measures. And we also assess the tone at the top in overall governance of the bank. We test The journal entries with analytics assess the approvals and to determine accuracy, also to identify entities that would not be expected in normal operations. And We view possible preferences by management and bias in determining any significant [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And finally, we discussed these with internal audit, legal compliance and the supervisory board. Now materiality is based On international standards and the objective is an accurate depiction of the financial statements Based on our professional opinion, we determined this at €145,000,000 comparable to last year.
And as I say every year, We don't use the same materiality for all items for remuneration of the board, for example. We do not consider materiality Because the accuracy of that explanation requires such. All observed and All observed deviations exceeding €7,000,000,000 are reported to the Supervisory Board. The tap was discussed with the Supervisory Board are as follows. We confirm our independence every quarter and our plan is approved by the Supervisory Board.
In the management letter, we describe our Observations about the internal audit environment, important estimates and assumptions by the management in the financial statements are assessed [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] As
to whether they're reasonable within
the context. So this year, we considered COVID-nineteen expenses. Finally, we report quarterly To the management about our findings concerning the annual reports and in our audit report about To continuity and IT specific audit observations of difference and as well as the findings by our auditors report, any significant Difficulties would also be reported to the supervisory board. But in the past year, we didn't need to report anything. And in keeping with corporate governance We regularly have face to face discussions with the chair people of the risk audit and audit committees as well as the supervisory board.
Last year, we faced the bankruptcy of Wirecard in Germany. Part of the reported cash balance [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Based on published facts, we evaluated our Audit impact and determined that no adjustments were required. As of end year, we were able to confirm all ABN AMRO We received written confirmation. And this primarily relates to the confirmations for ABN AMRO by DNB and the ECB. And then we evaluated independence and determined that we remain fully independent of ABN AMRO.
And we discussed this and reported it to the executive board and the supervisory board. Finally, the outcome was an unqualified auditor's opinion for ABN AMRO 2020, confirming the other information in the financial statements. We also Performed a review of each quarter and provided a review statement for each quarter. And we provided a statement for the Integrated Report 2020 as well as the statements from the various subsidiaries of the bank and will also provide A similar statement concerning other measures concerning COVID in 2020. This is my 5th and last year as the external auditor of ABN AMRO.
I will be succeeded by My coworker Bernard Bruders. And I'd like to thank the management and supervisory board and U. S. Shareholders at the bank for the excellent Working relationship in the past 5 years and for your confidence in and me personally.
Thank you very much, Wouter. Well, you're not free yet because you don't leave us until the end of today's meeting. We're not saying goodbye until then. So you'll be with us for as long as this meeting continues. So thank you very much for your presentation.
Now as I mentioned when dealing with the previous agenda item, The next agenda item, 2 gs, is where we're going to deal with questions relating to the settlement with the prosecutor, annual report, corporate governance and the financial statements. So we'll now go on to agenda item 2 gs, adoption of the audited 2020 annual financial statements. Could I refer you to the financial statements as set out in the 2020 Annual Report are duly scrutinized by the external auditor, as you've heard just a moment ago. And as he said, they have approved the financial statements. Adopting the financial statements is a voting matter.
And as I said at the beginning of the meeting, participants can cast their vote at any time during the course of the meeting. And the results of the vote will be displayed at the end of today's meeting. So we'll now move on to deal with questions dealing with the settlement with the public prosecutor, the Annual Report corporate governance and financial statements. And as I said before, we'll start off by looking at questions submitted in advance. What I'll do is I'll read the question out and then nominate someone who I think is best positioned to provide the answer.
And that might sometimes be me. I'll start off with PGGM. They sent a number of questions in before the meeting, and I'd like to thank them for their questions. I'm quoting the question. In the 19th April press release.
It is stated that ABN AMRO has accepted a settlement which draws the line under a painful and disappointing section in Avian Amro's history and lessons have been learned. PGGM would like us to tell them what lessons we have learned. Robert, could I ask you to answer this question from PGGM? Yes, certainly, I'd be happy to. Well, it's true that as I said earlier, We've got structural sustainable improvements that we put in place.
We've been looking to see what didn't work out in the period under investigation. And one of the main lessons we learned from that is that We can't go through improving things on a business line by business line basis. No, you've got to carry it out across the whole scope of the bank. I think that's the main lesson that we've learned from all that. Thank you.
Next question from PGGM is about the detecting final crime program. ABN AMRO has set out a program called Detecting Financial Crime. This is quoting the question, DFC. And this is a substantial investment in the number of full time employees dealing with ABN AMRO's client lifecycle processes. Could you tell us whether and if so how you're working on a culture change.
How is compliance embedded in the organization? We'd like to have more and more explicit information about this in your report dealing with whistleblowers, code of conduct and so on. Could you please tell us more about this? Robert, again. Yes, well, culture and strategy obviously are inseparable.
We can only achieve our ambitions if we really live our culture. And culture could only mean who we are and what we're about. Our purpose is the guideline here. Our purpose helps us to achieve our strategic ambitions. And it's important for us to listen to our customers, our staff and all our stakeholders.
We're working together to construct a bank which will be future proof. And finally, you create a culture where all of us share the same ambition, which is a purpose that unites us all that we're working on for many years, banking for better for generations to come. Now of course, in our culture, compliance is of the greatest importance. And we express that from the very top, the tone from the top. All our staff have an important role to play and our three lines of defense are the model that we all operate in the bank.
Taking ownership, setting clear objectives.
This is
all part of our license to operate. And of course risk management and compliance are very important components. We are committed to our moderate risk profile and also to our role as gatekeeper of the whole financial system. Our Code of Conduct, as a final point, gives guidelines for day to day work and the dynamics we encounter. We've got a permanent education program with compulsory training activities dealing with financial economic crime.
And we also demand that individual members of staff notify us of any strange events they find, have a speed up program, a whistle blowing procedure, which is also available in the bank and for outside parties as well. Thank you. I'd also invite you to pay your attention to page 3263 to 65 of the annual report. A final question from PGGM regarding the public prosecutor and the settlement we found with them. This is What moral task does Avian Ambu see as being assist 1 of the main banks?
How can it protect the financial system from misuse by criminals. Robert again. Well, I repeat again, I've said many times, we must fulfill our role as gatekeeper. And that is our moral task in order to make sure the financial system can be honest and we can have a more secure society. A last question from PGGM on Agenda Item 2 is remuneration.
BGM is asking what role the variable remuneration plays in the bank and what impact the decision had that there would be no performance based variable remuneration in 2020. Arljan, could you answer this question from PDGM? Yes, I'll be happy to. But our AVLAMURO has a moderate remuneration policy, as you know, and variable component part is an important part of that. Sometimes in other countries, the variable component is a major part of the remuneration package.
ABM AMRO greatly reduced the performance related component in 2020. You can see that in the annual report. The effects of that are fairly Limited. In 2019, the total was 3.4% of the bank and this time it's 0.9 percent of the total remuneration. So the impact has been limited, but is an important decision and it's sending out a clear signal.
Thank you. Now we can move on to Questions from the VEB Association of Shareholders submitted in advance and thank you for your questions VEB. The first question from the VEB is whether ABN can say whether the reduction in AML high risk cases is compatible with the agreements previously reached with the supervisory authority. Robert? Well, I can say be very brief there.
Yes, we have a factual report telling you about that. Thank you. Next question is, what does ABN AMRO consider as being the main practical risks when scaling down the corporate institutional banking CIB division. Well, any possible risks have been carefully mapped out and are being managed. We've got good momentum for this downscaling, downsizing.
The underlying markets are developing well. We are on schedule. We report progress regularly. Recently, we also said that our loan portfolio in TCF had been sold. And this brings us one step closer to the total dismantling of these activities.
Now after this transaction, TCF will be 70% of the whole TCF exposure will have been dismantled. Thank you, Robert. Next question from VEB is whether ABN AMRO can shed more light on what Risk framework shortcomings have been identified partly because of the CIB evaluation. What control mechanisms have been tightened up as a result? And what improvements remain to be made?
Tanja, could you answer this question? Yes, certainly. Now Robert mentioned this a moment ago, the strategic decision to take some corporate and institutional banking non core activities and to remove them from our portfolio that's had an impact on our risk profile. Secondly, we had a look at the activities we're carrying on with that is our core activities. Here we've set our individual limit tightened up the limits on sectors and individual loans and geographies.
And we also looked at ABN AMRO clearing, where a number of steps have been taken, partly by tightening up on limits for extreme stress situations. Thank you. Next question from the VEB is the mortgage market. How does ABN AMRO think it can compete successfully in the mortgage market with non banking parties such as pension funds and insurance companies which have a different finance mix and can therefore offer lower tariffs. Robert?
Yes. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Well, For some time now, we've been playing a successful role in the mortgage market. And as you know, it's a matter of price.
We are very familiar with the market. We know the market segments well. We've got very good distribution system for mortgages. So we are in a very strong position to provide a reliable and flexible service to our customers and take necessary steps when addressing our mortgage portfolio. Thank you.
Another question from the VB, acquisition policy. ABN AMRO is always proud to announce acquisitions in Private Banking in particular as a point of strategic attention. The last takeover in this segment was in mid-twenty 18. What does IBNERO consider to be the main obstacles in its path here? Well, we are still open to make further acquisitions, particularly if they fit in with previous strategic choices that we've made in the past.
So yes, we are keeping an eye on opportunities in the market. And when we make a decision, of course, we'll let you know. Next question from the VEB. Whether the Board can shed light or why the market risk in calculating economic capital has increased so greatly While this is not visible in the calculation of market risk regarding the risk weighted assets, I can refer you here to Page 90 of the annual report. Robert?
Well, yes, the AVN AMRO risk taxonomy underlies the determination of market risk, in this case, in fact, for RWAs and for economic capital. However, when calculating the RWA market risk, the trading book carries a great deal of weight. So the increase in market risk of economic capital in the past year has largely been driven by the bank book. Thank you. The next question came in from the VEB, but is very similar to a question also raised by Mr.
Vanden Boss. So we have combined the two questions. Is Adrian Amrou willing to recover the cost paid in fines in fines in the settlement regarding the money laundering scandal on members of the Board reply no, this is a corporate responsibility. Next question from the VEB was also very similar to one raised by PGGM. The European Banking sector is characterized by a large number of players and low level of profitability.
And this leads to misgivings regarding it as earnings model for banking institutions. Why does ABN AMRO take the view that its readjusting strategy is a good answer to these concerns? That's a very interesting question. Yes, very interesting question. Thank you.
Yes, this is exactly why we had the strategic review and took time to make clear choices. In ABN AMRO, we want to build on our existing strengths, market segments that we know well, market segments that we've got experience of. So we combined this with a very thorough analysis of how ABN AMRO can interact with its customers. And this led us to the conclusion that The bank's convenience level, the customers online experience is a very important part of ABN AMRO. We can see that particularly in the COVID-nineteen circumstances.
At the same time, we've got a great deal of expertise and knowledge. And what's interesting in this strategy really is that it's building on what The bank has shown itself to be good at in the last years, building up more scale and really making ourselves in a position to be effective. So we've got individual segments where we can grow. We look at the market circumstances, but we're also making the bank simpler and more effective. And that has led to the costs that we incur as a result of that.
And we've seen that the costs go down over time. So by way of conclusion, As I said earlier, you can have an ROE of 8% by the end of this period that's currently under plan. So we have no doubt that the choices we have put in place, the geographical focus, Nordwest Europe, The choices regarding customer segments that we're good at, mortgages, SMEs. Those are the bank's strengths. It's where we can provide an across the board service to all customers.
These are segments that we as the bank really are good at and that gives us lots of confidence to face the future. Thank you, Robert. Now the last question submitted in advance by the VEB is a question to I'll read it out. Has a key audit matter regarding the current public prosecutors' investigation and said this year that ABN AMRO is now also suspected of a further of debt laundering. So when did become aware of this?
And in what way have they taken actions on it? Walter, please, Yes. Well, we were informed in the when looking at the end of 2020, so that's beginning of 2021, it actually happened. This had an impact on our auditor bridge. Now the it was the problem identified was already a key audit matter, so we already looked into it a great deal.
But we looked at the legal people in ABN AMRO and talked to lawyers in the bank In order to map out what was happening, we also had talked with our own legal specialist. We made sure we had all the relevant documentation and we can see that satisfactory attention was paid to it in the financial savings. So we talked about this and we talked about this to the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. And finally, we built the matter into our key audit matter in our annual audit statement. Thank you, Wouter.
Well, this brings us now to questions put forward by the VBDO, the Association of Investors For Sustainable Development. Thank you very much for your questions. This takes up a lot of time, but these are important issues, so I'm happy to read them through. What steps exactly is ABN AMRO going to take in order to foster biodiversity? And can the bank report in future on how it lives up to its finance for biodiversity pledge, which it signed.
Evin AMRO says that in the Q2 of 2021, it will publish a science based target, referring to its investments in the energy sector, mortgages, commercial, real estate and the investment portfolio. And this is a quote from the annual report, Page 145. What climate scenario, that is to say the maximum global warming, is this target being set for? Will ABN AMRO look at the 1.5 degrees scenario as advised by the Science Based Target Initiative for Financial Institutions? And when can the VBDO expect to hear about interim objectives being set.
And finally, the VBDO is aware of ABN AMRO's diversity policy and its active approach to its own staff regarding diversity and inclusion. AB Al Amro's Ethical principles should largely be reflected in its investment strategy. VBDO, however, can see that diversity is not taken on board in ABN AMRO sustainable policy on investments, matters such as engagement and voting policy. Is EBEN AMRO prepared to make diversity a more explicit part of its investment portfolio and communicate on the subject in the coming year. Robert, can I give you the floor on this?
Thank you, Tom. And my thanks for the questions. I'll try and answer them as fully as I can. Well, ABN AMRO is fully aware of the great importance of biodiversity as we've made clear in recent years. And we can see the financial sector has a role to play and a responsibility to assume in this.
And we do report on that very extensively in order to give you an even better overview of the actions to be taken As a result of the dialogue with stakeholders, which we have on this topic, we, among other things, have agreed that a biodiversity statement will be development
and
that we will work further on integrating biodiversity into our sectoral policy. Then the second question, climate. Our target eventually is for our loan portfolio and investments for our customers to be in line with the scenario wherein global warming is restricted to comfortably under 2 degrees Celsius. Climate scenarios, which we follow, come from the International Energy Agency, those in line with that target and we have no plans to tighten up on this matter. We deal with our progress on science based targets in our recent publication called Guiding the Bank's Portfolio to Paris.
At the same time, We're not only looking at long term objectives. No, the only way in which you can put this into practice is by specifically saying what you're going to be doing in the coming year. For that reason, therefore, we have set out interim targets, for example, the energy portfolio and the commercial real estate and mortgage portfolio. In ABN AMRO, we are very much involved in further developing science based targets for the financial sector and we are always watching where we can improve our policy further in order to help our customers transition to sustainability. Diversity has always been an important topic for me personally and for the bank as well.
It is a topic for the whole bank in future, and it's part of a broader approach for investing on our clients' behalf. In the past year, we specifically investigated of the bank through a gender lens. Here, we found gaps in opportunities across the whole range from the bank, including our customers' investment portfolios. Plugging these gaps and availing ourselves of opportunities are part of diversity. We've already carried out a great million views with NGOs, trade unions and also with many of our larger customers in order to get a clearer view of how our policy across the bank can be more specific to deliver such a sexy quality.
We also had a word referred out to MS to further engagement in the companies that our clients invest in. So diversity is an integrated part of all these talks. Thank you, Robert. Now we have questions from Mr. Vanden Bosch on the subject of the annual report.
Firstly, Mr. Vanden Bosch is asking what has happened to the growth in client numbers and asking about the cloud customer experience. Fine words, but where's the action says Mr. Van den Bosch. And he would like here to hear more about the operating result of 9%.
Robert, could you deal with that? Yes, certainly. Firstly, the question about the operating result in Commercial Banking. Well, that is a result of the low interest income. That's just the situation that's the way it is at the moment.
Then your question about customers. Well, we are working hard to improve our customer experience. And as we said and our investor update. We want to be a personal bank in a digital age. And what that means is, well, We recognize we fully recognize that an online service provision must be developed further and taken further, but it's up to us to make that personal.
So it might be like nowadays we have a lot of banking work doing on video. 95% of our conversations are on video link these days. But it means that in those interactions we need to express the bank's personal commitment to our customers as we have shown when the COVID crisis erupted and still are showing, it also means that once something happens in a customer relation. We are there to deal with it. Now you might think when we talk about computerization, you say, well, how can computerization be personal?
But no, you see, that's exactly What we have shown in the last few months, we are there for our customers, and we can be there in the digital world too. Finally, are we always successful in this? No, not always. Of course, there are times when our service to the customers is not up to the clients' wishes. And that means that we have to spend a great deal of attention at the moment evaluating our complaint management to make sure that we always take steps within our organization to see what's happening.
We want to be the personal bank in the digital age. Thank you, Robert. And Mr. Vanden Doss then asks when there's going to be a big large scale reorganization from senior management and Board level down to middle management. And well Mr.
Ventendoss, I think that in past years, we've had a great many senior management positions and the middle management positions, which have been changed. And last year, When we published the Q2 figures, we announced the reorganization of CIB. And in late November, we had the strategic refresh. And it seems to me by whatever answer to your question that we are constantly looking to see whether the bank's organizational structure is fit for purpose on the basis of the strategy that we've told you about. And as you hear, well, first we had to get the strategy in place and that is the basis on which we can then address our structure and look at our senior management.
And I think in the past years, we have amply perform that task. Then Mr. Vanden Bosch has a question about auxiliary matters, and I'll give Robert the floor to go with this. Why are there differences discrepancies in lease car expenses because an electric bike is good enough? Mr.
Vanden Bosch also asked a number of suggestions regarding an alternative head office. Robert, please. Yes. Thank you very much for your question once again, Mr. Vanden Bosch.
I'll start with your last point. As you know, ABN AMRO will be selling the headquarters of the Gustav Mahler Mall in Amsterdam and then rent some of it back again. And I said the property on the Foppinger d'Eiff address is going to be completely rebuilt and it's going to be a wonderful sustainable building. Regarding mobility, well, a few years ago, we did make some very conscious choices to travel responsibly. Elena said this a moment ago when she was speaking, Teleworking from home is something that people have done a great deal of in recent months, and we can see that teleworking is going to be more and more the norm.
And this can be combined with a sustainable method of traveling. We've been dealing with that for many years now already. So ABN AMROs can get a public transport card and we encourage them to buy bikes and e bikes. I'm very happy to tell you that there's a new position, a new situation whereby members of staff in ABN AMRO can lease a bike or electric bike. Yes.
And just if I could add something on there, Mr. Vandenbroe, For many years now, I have been taking my e bike to work daily and I haven't leased it for the bank. Then Mr. Van de Boas has a number of questions on the auditor's report. The questions are as follows.
What are the main issues identified by E and Y? In the priority list of points for retention, Have some things already been dealt with? And are there any new items of importance added to the list? Have you as found the ABN and AMRO and its staff were satisfactorily cooperative? And finally, Is it true that in the past shareholders' meetings, you suddenly said that internal auditing is not up to scratch?
Wouter, could you respond to this, please? Well, I'll try. I'll start with your last one. Now I know that Mr. Vanden Bosch is a very critical shareholder.
And in the last 5 years, he's raised a large number of questions at shareholders' meetings. I can't recite them all from memory, but I certainly remember him. Regarding the management letter, well, Wes, we've got these important topics that we raised in the management letter. We talk about what we've come up with and we make recommendations regarding the bank's internal audit as part of our auditing activities on the financial statements. And in 2020, We identified a number of topics in our management letter, but the bank is certainly making progress.
We're looking at completion matters, models, a risk control framework. These are items we discussed. Now did we in find the bank and its staff were cooperative enough? Yes, I can reply yes to that. Our relationship with management is open and frank.
Management certainly is willing to listen to our criticisms and responds to what we say. And we've got an open, friendly relationship with the Supervisory Board. Thank you, Wouter. Well, that's the questions that we received in advance. And now I'll give the floor to the moderator.
Have we had any questions submitted on the live chat? No questions yet? Okay. Thank you very much. And now then I'll give the floor to people who submitted questions in advance and said they want to ask their questions in person.
I understand that this is the VEB and the VBDO. They said in advance that we should do that. So I'll give the VEB the floor first to ask their follow-up questions in person. VeeB, please.
Do we have the VEB on the line? Perhaps to be clear, to ask questions, please press And hopefully Mr. Costa, you were able to ask your question now. Perhaps the connection has been severed. Now I'll give the floor to Ms.
Laskovich from the VBDO. Good afternoon. I'm Ms. Laskovich from the VBDO. Dear Executive Board and Supervisory Board, thank you for this opportunity to ask additional questions.
The DIO would like to congratulate the ABN AMRO. Speaker is unfortunately inaudible. We read both documents with tremendous interest. This concerns responsible investing. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Apparently, there has been sustainable investment.
The VBDO is delighted at the conversion by the bank. Connection is very poor. Speaker is inaudible. Interpreter apologizes. Mrs.
Laskovich, may I interrupt you, ask the chair? Because it sounds like a horse is galloping through your room Because we have the greatest difficulty hearing you. I'll repeat this, says Mrs. Glastovich. The customers of Evian Amro already invest over EUR 26,000,000 sustainably and The VBDO is delighted with this change by the bank in 2018, so that customers are typically offered a sustainable investment format.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY
REPRESENTATIVE:] And
the ABN AMRO has ranked 5 sustainability categories from poor to excellent. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] It's not entirely clear what share sustainable investment is of the total invested assets Or the distribution as to the extent of sustainability among the different investments? And could ABN AMRO communicate the extent of sustainability and its progress toward objectives and whether this may be [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Influenced by European regulations, especially the SMTR. Yes. Now we could hear you, Thank you for your questions and your observations, explains Robert Spack.
I'd like to talk to you about our objectives in the area of sustainable investment At ABN AMRO, we agreed that the total sustainable investment book for ABN AMRO would account for about 1 third of the total book in by 2024. So we're explicitly aiming to track The developments in that investment book and we've divided it into different categories as we've indicated in our annual And it appears in other reports as well. So sustainable financing at the corporate institutional bank would be about 25% of the total. And we said that in 2024, Renewable energy should account for 45% of that book, which is also our own target. As for the commercial bank, We're very active in circular.
And you've said that the ultimate Objective should be 27% by 2024. In terms of circular sustainable financing, we do. And objective for circular loans were also set. So they're all consistent with how we have [SPEAKER
UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Addressed this in
previous years to define objectives within the bank for sustainable loans and investments. So there are certain targets that you identified for us, which I won't elaborate on, but that does enable us with respect to those criteria to continue to focus throughout the bank on something that we consider to be exceptionally important. Perhaps you could tell us the ratio of what is sustainably invested with respect to the total invested assets. Well, what I can tell you, Answers Robert's fact is that we have amply exceeded our objectives. I can't tell you the total, but I can tell you more about that later on.
That's fine. Thank you very much. Thank you for your additional questions, explains Tom De Fan Heads. Mr. Coster arrived at the phone.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] No. Mr. Costa will
now tape in. Okay. Then we'll wait a moment.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Well, if you hear me, it's all been resolved.
We can hear you perfectly now. Earlier, we couldn't hear you, Systemes Femme, but now we can. Okay. Excellent, says Mr. Costa.
My question thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for all the explanation so far. What I'd still like some answers about that concerns threats and new emerging markets and how ABN AMRO considers all of this in light of the strategy. And when I say threats, I also mean discussions about new market operators. How will ABN AMRO respond?
And I don't really see much about that in the annual report either. Thank you for your question. I'm glad you're answering that question because basically ABN AMRO has been Dealing with new operators on the financial markets for years. We work extensively with what are known as fintechs. What's interesting is that we're learning from that.
And based on working with FinTechs, We're able to adapt our own operations and we're investing in fintechs. So we do not see the new market operators As threats, we see them as encouragement to review our own Digital agendas in our infrastructure and accelerate implementation. You'll see that in our At the same time, we are explicitly examining how quickly and in which fields new operators are becoming active. We spoke about the mortgage book earlier and you'll see a new some new operators there too. That means that we're Also adjusting our offers on those markets too.
We're adjusting our supply. So in addition to accounting for What ABN AMRO held is a very natural position for years and improving there. We're trying to examine the dynamics on the market. And thanks to working together and investing and then Integrating within the ABN AMRO model, we believe that we can accommodate That competition or in quotation marks those threats. Tom Dusan, the supervisory board has this topic very high on the agenda.
We regularly exchange ideas with the bank executive about this as well as with External experts and ask them to advise as to their view on the developments on the one hand relating [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] To consolidation in the financial sector and on the other hand, how they view the influence of new operators in this field. So this is very high on our agenda, Mr. Coster. Mr. Coster, that's excellent to hear.
Thank you very much for your reply. It would be nice if this is fleshed out more in the coming annual report because this seems to be happening Behind the scenes and I certainly understand that, but it's important that we can sense that ABN AMRO is keeping up with changing times. And it turns out from your answer that you are devoting considerable attention to this. Mr. Chairman, may I ask 2 additional questions?
Please go ahead. One question that comes to mind is in what measure? What is the idea behind Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets? A lot is happening there. Major operators also on behalf of U.
S. Banks are taking all kinds of steps now. How does the ABN feel about that? Okay. Robert, I'll be I can understand your enthusiasm in giving me the floor about this.
Thank you for the question. It aligns perfectly with what I just mentioned. As for cryptocurrency bitcoins, I am keeping abreast of all developments meticulously. You'll undoubtedly have noticed how quickly they're Forging ahead, it's not a regulated system yet. So it's particularly important for financial institutions to track how the regulations in the field are progressing.
But nonetheless, we need to continue keeping track of it to ensure that [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] We can keep abreast of this in time. So we're certainly scrutinizing that and keeping track of it. Mr. Koster, Is that something that will be disclosed at a certain point? I think it's important that we know not only that you're Keeping track of it, but also that you'll be commenting on this.
I think it's useful if we understand how an important bank views this new market? Tom Deshpande, well, there was some comment About one area via the Dutch Association of Banks, which recently published a report responding to ideas that exist within some central banks as to issuing cryptocurrencies of their own exchanges. And in Europe, that would be of the euro. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] The NBB, the Dutch Association of Banks, drafted a report in response to I think it's a blue paper. It's not a white paper In any case, by the ECB addressing cryptocurrencies.
Thank you. I'll certainly read that, continues Mr. Coster. My final question. I know that this will be a sensitive question.
Recently, you made announcements To the public that negative interest will be assessed on deposits exceeding 150,000. Fortunately, that's a somewhat higher threshold than with other banks after this COVID period in which many people tried to save and deposits have increased. My question is, aren't you heading towards the most traditional and essential function of a bank towards society, which is that you should be able to deposit your bank safely. You should be able to deposit your money safely with the bank without it costing you money. And they're undeniably short term fees because That 0.5% needs to be paid to the ECB.
Doesn't that mean that one of the traditional pillars of banks In the Netherlands is being obstructed here. And in my view, that's negative. That's a drawback. And shouldn't you take a different view of the negative interest rate, which Hopefully, will not endure for years years. And isn't this something that the NBB, the Dutch Association of Banks could address So that it would be could be abolished on retail private deposits at the Because this is a driving force behind getting people to invest given the interesting proposals in your business model.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And of course, this shouldn't mean that investors operate too quickly [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And carelessly investing their money because in the past, depositing money with the bank was the safest Of course, you understand, says Thomas Desfrain, that [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] We're not we don't enjoy assessing negative interest rates, but this is the consequence of market circumstances. Since the ECB charges us for having money, so we need to maintain the earnings model of the bank. And that's why we're forced to charge negative interest rates. Robert Sock. Well, that's the core of the answer.
Let me tell you, we're very well aware and I'm glad that you told us About our own social responsibility in this respect. So your suggestion to mention the broader social consequences of such measures, which indeed are necessary and to relate them to the fundamental role of banks and to discuss this within the NBB, the Dutch Association of Banks. I'll certainly take that on board. Tom Desphin. Thank you, Mr.
Costa for your questions. Are there additional [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Questions via the live chat on the phone? Yes, Mr. Chairman, PJGM is waiting. So I'd like to give the floor to Mr.
Fiermacht. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me start with a point of order. I just wanted to mention that there's a huge [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Time difference between the webcast and the phone.
The webcast is considerably behind. That means that I'm talking with you over the phone, [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And your gestures on the webcast become visible only much later. That is on a side note. And I have another point, if you allow me, because you started by mentioning that agenda Items for A and B have been deleted from the agenda. And basically, we welcome that and we requested that last Monday in our questions submitted in writing.
So it's a very good thing that you did that. But I believe that enables me to ask questions about that here. Is that correct? Yes, it is, is the answer. At least I assume That your questions relate to the reasons why we discussed to remove 4A and B from the agenda.
That's correct is the reply. I'm [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Specifically referring to your indication that the settlement proposal resulted in [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Penalties being covered by the NV company, if I'm correct. And if that's the case, how does that relate to removing the discharge from liability [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Items from the agenda, which concern supervision of the NDA and being able to hold the board members accountable. So can you explain how this in the settlement proposal, it was agreed that the Corporate entity will cover that even though it's been discharged. It's been decided to remove the discharge item from the agenda.
Now just to clarify, and I should have told you relating to for AIM-four B, the reason that [SPEAKER
UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] We deleted them from the agenda
is because we believe that the course of time Between the announcement of the settlement and today, it was too short to enable shareholders and depository receipt holders to modify any voting instructions they had already given. We certainly don't plan not to request a discharge, but it won't be today. That will happen at a more opportune moment. For example, if during the course of the year, for whatever reason, we convene an extraordinary general meeting or at the Annual General Meeting next year. So we're not going to skip requesting that discharge.
That's clear. Thank you. No additional questions at this time. Thank you. Are there any additional questions?
No. There are no other questions over the phone, Mr. Despharmes. Okay. That covers this agenda item.
And we will move on to the next one, which is agenda item 3. And that concerns the reservation dividend policy, and I'll hand you over to Robert Stark for that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The dividend policy of ABN AMRO as it takes into account the current and expected capital requirement, the risk profile and growth
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] In determining the percentage
of profit distribution, we considered the moderate risk profile of ABN AMRO and Statutory charges so that dividend payments can be maintained in the future. This year, we were not able to put a proposal to distribute a dividend on the agenda. We are Reconsidering a dividend proposal in accordance with the recommendations of the ECB and in any case, will not Do so before the end of September 2020. As soon as we have done such a reconsideration, we will notify you. Thank you, Robert.
We did not receive any questions in advance about this agenda item. And I'll ask the moderator whether [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:]
Any questions have arrived via
the live chat. No questions about this topic via the live chat either. Thank you for this announcement. Then I propose that we move on to the next agenda item, which is exactly the Item 4A and B that Mr. Fierenbach was asking questions about.
As I mentioned at the start of this meeting, Agenda items 4A and B, respectively, discharging individual members of the executive board and The supervisory board members, these items have been omitted from the Agenda, the reason is that most shareholders and depository receipt holders had already issued their voting Instructions before last Monday, so before the important new information concerning
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] The public prosecution service
was disclosed. As a result, they were unable to include this information in deciding how to vote. So that's why we chose to withdraw this agenda item at this specific meeting. Then I'd like to give the floor to the moderator to see whether any questions have been asked By the live chat about this item, no questions about this item. Then we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is The report on the performance of the external auditor and I'd like to give Charlene Timstrav of the floor.
I see him already, the Chairman of the Audit Committee, and he'll elaborate on the main findings arising from the annual evaluation of the performance by the [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED
COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] External auditor, Charlie.
Thank you. Can you hear me? Just a hand check. Excellent. Yes, we do this every year.
Especially this year, it's very important because we're going to propose that you shareholders to reappoint for 2 more years. Once again, this year, we evaluated the external auditor and the result of this Evaluation, as you can see in this presentation, was once again very positive, especially on important items such as independence, Objectivity, knowledge and professional confidence. And Also the areas for improvement that arose from last year's evaluation were taken onboard well by especially relating to communication about the management letter. And I'll leave it at that, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much. Then I propose that we move on to Item 5B, which is the 3 department of Ernst and Young as the external auditor for the financial Years 20222023, we did not receive any questions in advance of that agenda items 5a or 5. This is a voting item on the agenda. And [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] As stated, with respect to all voting items, the results will be disclosed at the end of the meeting. So I'm asking the moderator have any questions been asked via live chat?
No, no questions via the live chat. Thank you. Then I will move on to agenda item 6. That's the composition of the Executive Board. Agenda item 6 comprises 3 subordinate points.
I propose that we cover 6 A, B and C all in one go. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] And after that, of course, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions about all of these items. The appointment term of Executive Board members, Tanja Kuppen, our Chief Risk Officer and Christian Bornfeld, our CIO and TO, Chief Information and Technology Officer will end at the close of this meeting. We intend to reappoint both Tania and Christian as members of the Executive Board for terms of 3 4 years, respectively. And we opted for these distributed terms of appointment to ensure that when these terms end, Executive Board members do not need to be reappointed simultaneously.
In addition, because of the departure of Clifford Abrams, the supervisory board went out in search of a new CFO, and that search resulted in the nomination of Lars Kramer. And We're delighted to tell you that the Employees Council has issued positive advice about the intended reappointments and the intended appointment. At Agenda Item 6A, the intended reappointment of Tanja Kupping appears. The supervisory board is notifying the general meeting about the intended reappointment of Tanja as member of the Executive Board for a 3 year term. Tanja has been Chief Risk Officer at AB and M since 1 October 2017.
As such, she is responsible for risk management and compliance. She has a very strong track record in risk management in both domestic and international banking and Has more than 22 years of experience in senior management positions. At agenda item 2b, The intended reappointment of Christian Bornfeld has been included for information purposes. So we are informing the general meeting the intended reappointment of Christian Vornfeld as member of the Executive Board for a 4 year On 1 March 2018, Chris Wornfeldt became Chief Innovation and Technology Officer and at ABN AMRO Is responsible for innovation, IT, corporate information, security and business services. As the Title suggests Christian Bornfeld has a strong track record and has acquired broad IT knowledge and experience in different positions at financial institutions and previously at IBM.
In addition, the supervisory board intends to appoint Christian Bornfeldt to vacancy that rose as a result of Clifford Abrams' departure As Vice Chairman of the Executive Board and the Executive Committee, [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] The deputy chairman replaces the CEO as needed or if the CEO is unable to attend or absent or if the position of the CEO falls vacant. At Agenda Item 6C, the intended appointment of Lars Kramer [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] A CFO has been included for notification purposes. On 10 February this year, the supervisory board announced The intended appointment of Lars Kramer as Chief Financial Officer and member of the ABN AMRO Executive Board. The highlights from the agreement with Mr. Gramr have been published on the ABN AMRO website.
The intended appointment is subject to the approval of the ECB. And as soon as this approval has been obtained, he will be appointed by the supervisory board to a 4 year term. [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY
REPRESENTATIVE:] And his term of
appointment ends upon the close of the Annual General Meeting in 2025. Lars Kramer has over 25 years of international and banking experience in finance controlling and financial management. He is presently Group CFO of the Hellenic Bank in Cyprus. Before that, he worked for over 20 years in various positions at, for example, ING Wholesale Banking and ING Direct. He is also highly experienced in managing strategic projects and change projects in aforementioned positions.
Lars is present online and will be pleased to introduce himself. Lars, you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
We need to be here today to introduce myself. I'm Lars Kramer, born in Germany 53 years ago, where I lived for 6 years, But I grew up in South Africa where my family comes from. I went to school at the university and university in Cape Town and married my wife, Kim, over there. I've got 2 kids who are both born in Hong Kong and are both now at university in London. So the relocation this time around will be a lot easier than the last time.
I've spent the last 25 years in the banking industry at various institutions in many different geographies and lived through many times of turmoil in the sector. My career has taken me to many amazing parts of the world like London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and most recently, Cyprus. We have worked for ING, Credit Suisse, SBC Warburgs, Hambros and Delenic Bank. As a family, we're really looking forward to coming back to Amsterdam as we have many happy memories from our previous time here, it feels a bit like a homecoming. It will also give me the opportunity to improve my Dutch and to convert what is a rudimentary Afrikaans, German, Dutch mix dialect into something more proficient.
I've been working as a CFO since the early 2000s and at last count have partnered 9 different CEOs in my life. So it will be a real privilege working as part of Robert's leadership team. I've operated
I've worked on
the restructuring side and the reorganization side as well as on the growth side in various roles. I've also participated in multiple inorganic acquisition and disposal transactions over the years. Additionally, over the last 4 years, I've had the pleasure of running strategy, leveraged finance, marketing and communications alongside the more traditional CFO roles. As the Global Divisional CFO at ING Wholesale Banking and earlier at ING Retail Banking International, I was part of a team running divisions operating in more than 30 countries with over 10,000 employees and total assets of around €370,000,000,000 The finance departments were up to 500 employees worldwide. During this time, The team was responsible for introducing changes and at improving the client channels, country footprints, product offerings, systems and processes with a goal of better customer service, a lower cost base, more efficient balance sheet and capital usage and better profits as well as focusing on nurturing the franchise's back to health after the last great financial crisis.
For the past 4 years, I've been the group CFO of Lennox Bank, where the main emphasis has been on reducing NPLs, remediating AML issues and consolidating the industry in Cyprus. My main achievements have been regaining the U. S. Dollar correspondent relationships with JPMorgan and Bank of New York, signaling the concerted effort taken by the bank, the industry and the country to tackle the issue of AML at a root and branch level and taking what was the number 4 bank in the country to market leadership, doubling its size and quadrupling its customer base by acquiring and integrating in record time the local cooperative bank. This was a complex multi €1,000,000,000 transaction involving 2 systemic banks, which require the alignment of many stakeholder groups, including governments, parliament, unions, The SRB, the ECB, the Central Bank of Cyprus and the local SEC as well as existing and new shareholders and investors.
I've always been one to push my boundaries and go beyond my comfort zone. Again, my motivation from working in the finance area, where the past, present and future come together, where you're always working as part of a multitalented team, We are instrumental in strategic direction setting, where you're prioritizing resource for day to day delivery and where you're held to account by the investors and the main stakeholders. The nature of the industry also means that you have to be nimble and adaptable, And there are always unforeseen events that have to be dealt with that will knock your best laid plans off track. I've already spoken with many people at ABN AMRO. These meetings have made me even more eager to join this great bank as I see a lot of motivated people with a clear mission, and that really inspires me.
My past experience, my goal focus, my leadership qualities and strategic skills will hopefully complement the team and provide some added capacity to deliver on a very ambitious set of plans over the coming few years to you, the shareholders and the broader stakeholder community. Being the CFO of ABN AMRO is a great opportunity and an honor for me. I really look forward to the challenge. Thank
you very much, Lars. Don Quel? Thank you very much. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you'll understand that we are delighted to see Lars Kramer joining our top team in ABN AMRO succeeding Clifford. And We look forward to very productive and enjoyable cooperation with him.
At this point, I would Just like to thank his predecessor Clifford for his input to ABN AMRO. I wish him all the best as CFO in Virgin Money over in the U. K. He's already made a start there in fact. I was talking to him yesterday and he's got off to a good start.
And if you don't object, I will send your best wishes to him on behalf of all of us. Well, we didn't receive any questions on this agenda item. Have any questions come in by the chat? Moderator? No, no live chat questions.
Okay. Thank you very much. That means then that we can we have now completed this agenda item. I can't really welcome Lars yet because we're waiting for the European Central Bank to give us green light. But nevertheless, I can welcome you a bit to our midst, Lars.
Now we move on to agenda item 7 of the agenda, issuing and withdrawal of shares. Now the Annual General Meeting is entitled to empower the Executive Board to issue shares and rights of shares to exclude the preemptive right and for purchase of ABN AMRO shares and depository receipts for shares. The Executive Board proposes with the approval of the Supervisory Board to take the authorization granted at the Underdrawal Meeting on the 22nd April 2020 for an 18 month period to replace with a new authorization given under Agenda Item 7A, 7B and 7C today. Now my proposal is that we go through all 3 agenda items here, the 7A, 7B and 7C. After that, you will have the opportunity to ask questions on all of Agenda Item 7.
Now you won't be surprised to hear we start with 7A. The proposal is for the Executive Board to be authorized from today for an 18 month period to 1, issue ordinary shares. And to make it quite clear, this is not ordinary shares B. And secondly, to grant rights to take up such shares ordinary shares up to a maximum of 10% of issued capital at ABN AMRO on today's date. The Executive Board will only be able to make use of this authorization with the authorization of the Supervisory Board.
Now agenda item 7b, the proposal is to restrict or exclude preemptive rights. And here again, The Executive Board can only act on this matter with the approval of the Supervisory Board. Agenda item 7c, the proposal to grant authorization to acquire shares and depository receipts of shares in Avian Amro's own capital. The proposal is for the Executive Board to be authorized for an 18 month period from today to acquire shares in ABN AMRO's own capital or depository receipts for shares via the stock exchange or in some other way. The Executive Board again can only take this action with the approval of the supervisory board.
And purchase of shares or depository receipts for shares in ABN AMRO's capital could happen for example as part of a restructuring or capital reduction including returning capital to shareholders and depository receiptholders. This will only happen in full respect of the future and current solvency rules as imposed by the supervisory authorities. The purchase price of shares and deposits for shares in Aviat Amro must be at least with nominal value of the ordinary shares at maximum 110% of the highest rate at which the receipts were traded on the previous trading day in Euronext Amsterdam. We've received no questions on this agenda item in advance, But maybe there are some questions on the chat. Moderator, please.
No questions on the live chat. Okay. So there are no questions. Thank you, moderator. This brings us to agenda item 8, the cancellation of shares or depository receipts for shares in the issued share capital of Avian AMRO.
The general meeting of shareholders is invited on the proposal of the Executive Board and subject to approval of the Supervisory Board and the ECB and other relevant supervisory authorities to decide to cancel The shares acquired by ABN AMRO via on the stock exchange or purchase of its own shares or depository receipts for shares on the basis of the authorization granted under Agenda Item 7C. The cancellation of these purchased owned shares will be restricted to 10% of the total capital issued in ABN AMRO on the date of the general meeting and is authorized for a period of 18 months from the date of today's meeting. No questions on this issue were submitted in advance. Moderator? No questions submitted during the meeting.
Thank you. Well, that then is the last item available for voting. So in a few moments, we will stop voting. So you can cast your vote now, please do so. And we will give you the voting results at the end of the meeting after we've had the open discussion.
Thank you all very much for your voting. And now we'll move on to Agenda Item 9. And again, we had no questions submitted for the general discussion in advance. Moderator, have you had any questions submitted on the chat? No once again, no questions from the chat.
Okay. That brings us then to the end of that agenda item. And before we go on to display the voting results, I just like to come back to what our external auditor was saying, when together this is the last time he'll be with us. So I would just like to avail my sense of this opportunity. Now that he genuinely has stopped working for us, he can heave a great sigh of relief and I can see a grin on his face.
Leaning back smiling to himself. I would like to thank Mr. Smith most sincerely for all the work he's done for ABN AMRO. This is the last time he'll be with us to meeting on behalf of E and Y. This is because it's a compulsory rotation of auditors.
It's not going to pick up with him. We've got to change him. So Wouter, thank you very much. And I greatly enjoyed working with you. I know that goes for all of us, especially the Chair of the Audit Committee, greatly enjoyed working with you.
My warmest thanks. Now it's time to show you the voting results. You can now see on the screen results of 2E, 2G and 5B. And you can see that all three issues were approved by the very comfortable majority from 99.95 percent to 100%. So all of those have been approved.
Perhaps you could have the next slide, please. Again, we can see that all issues were approved by a generous majority. The lowest one is 7B, that's 93 point 5%, 7% and all the others are very much above 99%. And this means that all voting issues have been approved by you, but with a comfortable majority. So my thanks to you for that.
And the meeting is therefore now closed. Thank you all for joining us and for contributing to our meeting. The meeting is closed.